Ghosts
by emyK
Summary: my first attempt at Lavender Town Lore. plays with the idea that red and ash are brothers, and all from the point of view of a young pokémon trainer. I had a lot of fun writing it, but be warned, it's kinda dark. rated T, so I can have a bit more freedom to make things interesting. R&R. (sorry about the vague summery, but I cant give anything away)


Sleeping was not a skill that developed with practice.

Anna lied in bed, staring across the small room that the elderly couple had let her rest in for the night. They were a sweet pair, each with big wide rimmed glasses and smiling faces. They lived in a small cottage on the outskirts of lavender town and had been nice enough to take in a penniless poketrainer they had found searching for pokemon on their front lawn. But despite their kindness, there was something eerie about them.

Anna remembered when they had found her.

The tall grass was the tallest she had seen, it bristled at her face and she had to part a path to see what was in front of her. At the time she wasn't sure what she was searching for, a pokemon to catch? Maybe. Pokemon to fight? Sounded great. She needed to take her mind off certain parts of her past, and catching, fighting, and cataloging was the perfect way to do so. Suddenly she bumped into something, a person! Yay trainer battle!

She turned to face the person, and was slightly shocked, it was an old lady. Oh well, earlier that day she had knocked out the pokemon of a couple of kids, why not fight some elderly?

Anna reached for her charmeleon pokeball, but the lady stopped her, "oh, sweetie, I don't have my pocket monsters with me." she chortled "are you a friend of Leeann's?"

"um, no." Anna responded. "just passing through."

"well my daughter and you would be great friends, she needs someone her own age to be friends with, would you like to stay for dinner?"

"um…" Anna's stomach growled at the idea of food. "I have berries, I'll be fine, but thanks for the offer." she really didn't have time to stick around.

But just then, footsteps were heard coming her way, maybe a pokemon? But no, sadly, it was just a dude. He peered his way through the tall grass and caught sight of Anna and the woman standing in the surrounding greenery. He ran toward them, well more hobbled he looked just as old as the woman.

"honey," he asked the woman, "who's this?"

"oh, I think she's a trainer." the woman said.

"she looks about Leeann's age." the man observed, "would you like to stay for dinner?" he asked staring at Anna as he said it.

"no, I'm fine" Anna said again backing out of the grass with a nervous smile.

"oh, we insist!" the lady shrieked.

"come in, take a seat, have some food, rest." the man finished, grabbing Anna's hand and leading her away.

Anna wanted to run, but a strange voice in her mind seemed to whisper, 'go, it is important.' and taking one hesitant footstep after another, Anna fallowed the couple.

The twos house seemed normal, a couch, a kitchen, but no technology, which wasn't to strange for a couple in there 80's. It wasn't until the elderly woman, who Anna learned was named Ellen, prepared a bounty and dressed the table with a strangely all vegetarian feast did Ann notice something strange about the house, the pictures. They hung whimsically on the walls, all in black and white, chronicling the life of 3 people and a verity of smiling pokemon. the older 2 in the pictures were obviously the couple, Ellen and Bill, but they looked to be in their late teens in the oldest pictures, and in their early 30's in the newest. The other person was a girl, a baby in the older pictures, and about Ann's age in the newer.

"Who's that?" Ann asked, pointing to a picture of a baby snuggling up to a jigglypuff like a teddy bear. A 19 year old Ellen posed behind the baby, grinning and giving a thumbs up to the camera.

"well that's our baby Leeann, and my sweet Ellen." Bill responded. "you'll meet Leeann soon, she'll be home tonight. She's about you age you know."

"so I've heard." Ann muttered, picking at a piece of all natural oran berry pie. This didn't make since, if Leeann was a baby when bill and Ellen were just kids themselves, and now Bill and Ellen were in their 80's, Leeann should be ATLEAST in her late 50's. Not a kid.

Not long after dinner, the couple had shooed Ana into a small bedroom, saying that it was Leeann's, and she wouldn't mind if Anna crashed on the top bunk of the bed.

The room looked to be once brightly colored, teddy bears with little pink hearts sown on their belly decorated the top bunk, arranged so they were smiling down at the room below. The walls were painted in a once bright pink, but was now faded the, paint peeled. Dust covered every surface, especially the desk which was littered in pens and paper, an old school lantern sat on the desk too, with a small pile of matches next to it. On the windowsill, was a vase. It had very shriveled remains of flowers, and the water had turned near black in color.

The room felt…lonely. Like the teddy bears and the flowers were waiting for an friend to come back. It was sad.

Anna climbed into the top bunk and curled up amongst the mass of stuffed animals. She didn't move, she only thought as the sun set, and the room was thrown into pitch-black shadows. Not even the moon shined through the window. But sleep would not take hold of Ann. And that's where she laid, recounting the events of the day, thinking why was she here? In this sad room, with a sad couple, deluded into thinking their little girl would come back?

It wasn't long before Ann grew tired of holding still and curiosity took over. She slunk down the ladder off the bed, and threw her pokeball, "come on out charmeleon!" she whispered. The pokeball opened and her charmeleon appeared, standing in the dark, the light on his tail cast long, spooky shadows over the sad room. It was kinda scary, but things weren't so lonely anymore. Ann hugged the pokemon who chattered comfortingly at her.

"Thanks, I needed that." Ann muttered. Then she and her friend crossed the room, and by the flickering light, Ann began to curiously paw through the paper scattered on the desk.

They were mostly stories it seemed, about ghost pokemon and brave heroes, one titled 'the Red Champion' was crumpled in a pile, Ann unfolded it but the ink was smudgy, and Ann could only make out the title and a few words, 'quiet, silver mountain, traveled alone, black as coal, ash, smoke, blizzard, death.'

Ann shivered at the last word, which was written in print smaller than the rest. The air around her seemed to have gotten cooler, Ann couldn't stop shivering, her hands began to shake , and the paper fell to the dusty desk. Suddenly her back arched, an indescribable pain ran up her body, it settled in her head intensifying. She screamed, though the scream was silent. Then, the pain just…stopped. As quick as it had come, it had just disappeared. And what's more something had...changed. the room was in black and white, her once bright orange pokemon was now grey, and frozen in place. The only color came from Ann, her clothes bright in the dark, but strangely non-illuminating on the pitch background.

A voice spoke, 'you are nice.'

Anna turned, it was a kid, about her age. She was not a source of color. Her skin was pasty white, her once blue-looking outfit was coated with dirt , her feet were bear, her backpack rested on her shoulders, also coated with dirt

Ann put 2 and 2 together, "Leeann?"

"yes." Leeann responded, "you are nice."

Ann recognized the voice, it was the same that spoke in her mind, urging her to fallow the couple. "you wanted me here." it was a statement, not a question.

"yes. I need someone who will listen. When I was…a live," the words were said strangely segmented, "I could, not, speak well. But I wrote. I saw…I saw things, in my mind. Things that marked me badly. They say…I was a witch. They were scared...of me, of my writing, of my, friends."

Ann listened, perplexed by the girls words. "who were they?"

Leeann pointed a long pale finger at a particular pile of papers, "I wrote about them. And the things I saw. Read, take the quest I…couldn't finish, you will learn much."

"a quest…why me?"

"they told me you would come, my friends, they told me I would know…they told me I could not rest until…until I gave a gift."

"the papers?"

"no. this." Leeann moved towards Anna.

Anna backed up slowly, but had no where to go. Leeann placed a finger on Anna's head, and the pain returned, it was blinding, her body arched and twisted, her voice box couldn't produce sound. Her vision spun and pain beat on her brain, and the last thing she registered was a feeling of falling, and a soft sound that seemed to echo, a sigh of relief.

* * *

There you have it! First chapter up. I'm getting back into the fanfiction game so please no flames, but constructive criticism is begged for! This is my first Pokémon one, and the following chapters (if I write any, I might keep it as a one shot) will deal more with the lavender town lore, as well as the whole 'ash and red are brothers' thing. Thanks for reading! wish me luck and click on the review button! Hope to see you on chapter 2, ideas are welcome.


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